bigchaz

I dont know much about it, but I did hear that flags are almost double if your numbers on the tax forms are even. If you list your income as 40,000 they know something isnt quite correct

Ive thought about it, but have no idea where to look for one. I dont make a ton of money, and I dont want to be spending a lot for an accountant. Plus if I was an accountant Id be chasing the larger companies, not a one man show like myself. How do you find someone who specializes in small home bases businesses?

Ive heard anywhere from 40 to 70 percent on maintenance coats. Guess it would depend on horizontals and/or verts, or both You in that range Ken? or lower for just horizontals?

But you don't present the staining as an upsell do you ken? If you price it separate people then try to justify the value in doing the cleaning or staining themselves.

I will never understand the logic behind composite. It rots out if you dont seal it so people throw a solid on it. Looks like crap and you could have gotten a decent pressure treated deck and have it professionally maintained for ten years at the same price. Would last the same amount of time, look twice as good, and be half as expensive

Id quote the price exactly the same as a strip/stain. No half deck jobs for me 485 is way way too low. Even if I quoted cleaning as half the price of the whole works, it would still be over 800 on that deck

Like larry I probably spend 30 minutes tops sanding on each deck. Typically the floor gets spot sanded (I do mainly ptp so no issues) for splinter area. Rails get belt sanded and spindles will get a quick deferring with the Makita if needed.

Well I did it today. Everything but the horizontals are white. It was cabots pro vt solid stain?/paint/acrylic thing Originally planned to use cabot problem solver oil primer but couldnt find it anywhere. Then I saw the pro vt which is self priming. Covered over what was left of the red behr solid on the rails. Its a rought looking deck but its coming along alright. Afternoon thunderstorms are killing me though. The white needs time to set. Had to redo parts of it from yesterday

The pic was after one of the strippings. It was stripped three times and not neutralized in this photo. Keep in mind when I say "stain" im talking about a solid color white that ill be using on the railings. It is designed to go over existing finishes (namely this solid behr crap). Surface has been completely sanded to remove all remaining behr solid.

Heres the arsenal: Makita 9227c with defurring pads Dewalt variable speed 5inch orbital sander with 60 grits Craftsman 4inch belt sander with 50grit. Just got the dewalt and that thing rocks. Heavy duty, hook and loop pad, great dust bag, quiet, and doesn't vibrate very bad at all. I could do an entire floor with that thing easy if i didn't have the belt sander

Have a deck with behr solid on the rails and try as I might I only got about 90 percent of it off. Ended up selling the customer on doing a two tone with white railings What is the best way to stain that? I was wondering If i need to prime to make sure none of the remaining behr decides to come off, but no Idea what to use. Cant find cabots problem solver primer in any stores I did see however, Cabot Pro VT solid color stain. Anyone use this? Says its self priming and made to go over existing painted surfaces. http://www.cabotstain.com/cabot/pdf/PROV0800.pdf

anyone else? what do yall use for two tones?

I figured two coats just to even out the parts that are bare wood versus the behr that didnt come off. Normally would charge more for two tone but since I failed to get the stain off as promised, this was the next best compromise

You can buy the hook and loop backer pad for the orbital sander polisher I use the makita 9227 with defurring and sandpaper pads. Trying to find 60 grit in the 9 inch hook and loop though

I always feel like im low compared to most guys on here, but no one really does wood in this area so Id say Im on the higher end locally

I just looked at the folders for my last few jobs. Looking just at the surface square footage my rates were 3.91, 3.48, 3.94, not including stain cost. I just divided my final bid by the surface square footage. I dont actually bid that way, but in the end thats what it would work out to. When I present the bid its usually 2.50 a square foot for surface plus my rate for railings and stairs

looks incredible man. That glass really sets off the look too. Never seen that before

Well I fudged up taking on a behr solid job. Wondering what the options are without ordering something. I knew id seen some posts on here with guys removing the behr solid quite well (that green deck for instance a few years back). But did a search and seems to be just as many cases of not being able to get it off The finish is 5 years old and mostly gone on the surface. Its the verticals im a bit worried about. Gonna do a test spot tommorow. Ive got plenty of timberstrip and low tox to boost, but will I need something else? Anyone have experiance with Bix? How does it work? is it effective, etc etc? Basically any tips on getting this behr stuff off?

Yea thats part of it as well. I had no idea how whether Id even get the job when I went inside to write the numbers. He showed me the can and then went to put it away. When he came back and I had the proposal finished he signed right on the spot. I should have told him I would have to come back with the price, but so far all my proposals have been written while I was there, so making a second trip isnt in my thought process Ive been telling myself to bring test stuff with me forever. Keep procrastinating. What stinks is that if I tested every deck I would have wasted a ton of time this last week on the 10 or so bids I didn't get

My concern is mostly that it could be hit or miss. For instance some people have been able to get the solids off with just SH like shane and the green deck. Then there is something like ken posted and it took all night dwell. Im kicking myself for not waiting and delivering the proposal later on since I priced it just like a normal strip job not fully absorbing the fact that this was behr

It finally happened yesterday and scared the daylights of me. Just finished spraying stripper all over a nasty deck when I headed back up the 10 or 12 stairs to hit a rail that was starting to dry. Got almost to the top of the stairs and lost footing. I leaned down to grab the railing, but of course that was covered in stripper as well. Ended up sliding head first down the 10 stairs with a flagstone walkway at the end of it. Thank God i was alright, but my hip took quite a beating. Awfully sore today. I was wearing my usual tall work boots with "oil resistant" bottom and waterproof leather. Is there anything that is safer to wear to keep from slipping on the stripper? In the end I think the fact that the stripper is so slippery probably saved me, since I pretty much glided over the stair treads. But obviously it would have been nicer to prevent it all together

respirator for me always with oxalic, 90 percent of the time with stripper and 50 percent of the time with precarb

Haha Million dollar question. Doesnt look like it especially since all these people have falling storys

If you spill something on your deck the dog will lick it right up

If people are too lazy to throw out the junk mail than they have other issues. Besides if a company wants to spend the kind of money required to send junk mail, might as well let them. Post office would only up stamps twice as much if they didnt make money off bulk mail stuff Plus how would they define junk? Some people just toss their bills too and wait to pay it late.